Vaporizer for volatile-fuel mixtures



Apri] 22 1924.

E. R. GODWARD VAPORIZER FOR VOLATILE FUEL -MIXTURES Filed Feb. 27. 1923 e, @m W ATTORNEYS.

m. m n m BY t/w Patented Apr. 22, 1924.-

UNITED STATES ERNEST R. GODWABD, OF CHRISTCHURCH, NEW ZEALAND.

VAPORIZER FOR VOLATILE-FUEL MIXT'URES.

Application led February 27, 1923. Serial No. 621,517.

To all whom it may' concern.'

Be it known that I, ERNEST R. GonwAizD, a subject of the King of Great Britain, residing at Christchurch, New Zealand, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Vaporzers for Volatile-Fuel Mixtures; and I do hereby declare the following to be afull, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to characters of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

This invention relates, generally, to iinpiovements in fuel vaporizers for use in connection with internal combustion engines, and for other` uses; and, the invention has reference, moie particularly, to a novel construction of vaporizing device which is allied in principle to that shown and described in my pending application for United States Letters Patent, filed August 26th, 1921, Serial No. 495,757.

l'lihis invention has for its principal object to provide a simple and inexpensive construction of vaporizer adapted to act upon an atomized liquid fuel mixture (such as is produced by the well known forms of atomizing carbureters) to reduce the same to a substantially uniform dry gaseous mixture prior to delivery thereof to the point of combustion. 5lo this end the present invention provides a structure comprising a closed chamber having an intake conduit and a discharge conduit communicating with its upper end, a perpendicular liquid fuel supporting means of extensive surface area arranged below said intake and discharge conduits, the surface of which is provided by a plurality I of vertically disposed partitions or walls spaced slightly apart, and a heat transfer means in engagement with the lower end of said fuel supporting means whereby heat is transferred to and conducted upwardly through said supporting means and consequently in a direction opposite to the natural gravitation of fuel lodged upon said supporting means, all whereby the heavier particles of liquid fuel may be deposited upon and Within the supporting means to meet withiiicreasing temperature as they gravitate upon the surface of the latter, so that said liuid particles may find a degree of heat a equate to vaporize the same where.

upon the fuel thus vaporized is returned out of the upper. end of the supporting means to j oin and combine with the streamv of fuel mixture passing out of the vapor.

izer through the discharge conduit. The invention is clearly illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a vertical longitudinal section n of the vaporizer device made according to and embodying the principles of this invention; Figure 2 is a transverse horizontal section, taken on line 2-2 in Figure 1; Figure 3 is a perspective view of a modified form of the fuel supporting means; Figure 4: is a similar perspective view of another modified form of the fuel supporting means; and Figure 5 is a fragmentary perspective of another modified form of said fuel supportin means.

Simi ar characters of reference are employed in all of the hereinabove described views, to indicate corresponding parts.

Referring now to said drawings, the reference character 6 indicates an outer casing, and 7 indicates a dome cover or closure connected with the upper end of said casing, the same terminating in a suitable dischargel member or conduit 8. The lower or bottom end of said casing 6 is closed by a hot-plate 9, provided on its under side with depending heat conducting fingers or projections 10. Arranged beneath said hot-plate 9 and its projections 10 is a hot-box 11 providing a heat transfer chamber 12 into which said fingers or projections 10 extend. Leading into said hot-box 11 is a delivery pipe 13 through which avhot uid may be introduced into said heat transfer chamber 12, such, for example, as the hot exhaust gases discharged from .an internal combustion engine. Said dome cover or closure 7 is provided with a laterally projecting annular Harige 14, and, in like manner, said hot-box 10 isalso provided with a laterally projecting annular` flange l5. Suitable bolts B are secured to and between the fianges 14 and 15 to secure the various above described elements to gether in opera-tive assembled relation.

Arranged within the interior 'of said casing 6 so as to rest upon and engage said hot-plate 9, and so as to extend upwardly therefrom toward the top end of the casing, is the novel combined fuel supportin and heat conducting means, which comprises a plurality of vertical partition or plate secv tions 16 arranged one 'withim the other and `*mechanical variation according to the chardescribed, the former is smaller'in diameter Y separated by intermediate perpendicular passages 17 open at their upper ends, but closed by said hot-plate 9 at their lower ends. Said partition or plate sections 16 `and the intermediate passages 17 may be formed by rolling a sheet of metal upon itself. in convolute form, as shown in Figures 1 and 2, or the same may be formed of a sheet of wire mesh or gauze 18 rolled in like manner in convolute form, as shown in Figure 3, or the same may be formed of perforate sheet metal 19 rolled in like manner in convolute form, as shown in Figure 5. It is also possible to form said fuel suporting and heat conducting means of tubuar sections 20 of any of the desired above mentioned materials, said sections varying in diameter so as to nest together in suitably spaced apart relation adapted to provide the intermediate passages therebetween as illustrated more particularly in Figure 4 of the drawings.

The reference character 21 indicates a fuel mixture delivery member or conduit, which enters through the discharge means or conduit 8, and the inner end of which terminates in a bell mouth 22 spaced slightly above the upper end of said fuel supporting and heat conducting means, so as to provide a space 23 intermediate its mouth and said fuel supporting and heat conducting means affording direct communication with the discharge means or conduit 8. In the arrangement of intake or fuel mixture delivery member and outlet or discharge member shown in the drawings and above than the latter, and the same are concentrically related one to the other so as to dispose their respective conduits in parallel relation, with the resultant advantage that the incoming charge of atomized fuel mixture, which is cold, is by reason of its proximity to the warmed gas or vapor passin out through the discharge, enabled to absor a certain amount of heat from the warm gas or vapor and thus cools the same prior to its delivery into the internal combustion engine served by the vaporizer, while at the same time the incoming fuel mixture is raised in temperature rendering the same more susceptible to vaporization. It will of course be understood that the illustrated and described concentric parallel arrangement of the intake and dischargeconduits of the vaporizer, is only one specific form of the desired parallel arrangement, and that such parallel arrangement-may be attained by mechanical modifications of the structure without departing from the sco-pe of this invention in such respect.

It will` be also understood that the heat transfer means constituted by the hot-box above described is subject to more or less acter of the heat supplying medium which it may be desired to utilize.

The operation of the device in use, when e. g. it is connected intermediate a carbureter and the cylinders of an internal combustion engine, is a follows:-

The vaporizer interior and a carbureter are subjected to the effects of the suction strokes of the pistons in the engine cylinders through the discharge means or conduit 8 and the fuel mixture intake 21, so that petrol or other liquid combustible fuel is atomized with air in the carbureter to form a fuel mixture :which is conducted through the intake 21 into the interior of the vaporizer above the fuel supporting and heat conducting means thereof. The more volatile portions or particles of the petrol are readily vaporized and combined with the air stream, so that the resultant combustible gas passes through the space 23 intermediate the mouth 22 of the intake 21 and is thence discharged toy the engine cylinders through the discharge means or conduit 8. Since the admixture of atomized petrol with the air passing from the carbureter always contains a quantity of comparatively heavy liquid particles which are unvaporzed, it is the object of this invention to provide a means whereby a substantially complete vaporization thereof is attained before passing into the engine cylinders. Such result is attained by means of the fuel supporting and heat conducting element of the vaporizer, the vertical walls and passages of which are disposed below the mouth 22 of the intake 21 in substantial alinement with the'direction of movement of the fuel mixture through the intake 21 and into the vaporizer. When the mixture of air and fuel turns upwardly and outwardly through the discharge means 8, said heavier particles of liquid petrol tend to continue their movement in a downward direction, and the sama are consequently thrown, as `it were, into the passages 17 and upon the surfaces of the wallsl, and thereupon tend to creepdownward or gravitate toward the hot-plate 9. Since the walls 16 are en aged by their lower ends directly with said ot-plate 9, the heat of the latter is communicated thereto, and is conducted upwardly therethrough, or in other words the conducted heat travels in the opposite direction to the gravitation of the liquid petrol particles. As a result of this action the gravitating particles of petrol are constantly spreading out and moving toward points of increasing temperature, with the consequence that the liquid particles are quickly vaporized as soon as they meet with a temperature adequate to produce such eect. The fuel vapor thus produced fills the passages 17 and escapes out of the open upper ends of the same, whereupon the escaping vallly por returns t0 and combines with the moving stream of fuel mixture which is being discharged through the conduit 8 to the engine cylinders.

Havin thus described the construction and mo e of operation of my present invention, I claim v 1. A vaporizer for volatile fuel mixtures or the like comprising a casing having a heat. transfer means at its lower end, a fuel supporting and heat conducting means within said casing comprising a plurality of laterally spaced apart vertical walls defining intermediate passages, said walls being disposed so that their lower ends are in heat receiving engagement with and the lower end of the passages defined thereby closed by said heat transfer means, and fuel mixture intake and discharge means communicating with the upper end of said casing and so arranged as to pass a moving stream of fuel mixture above and across the open upper ends of said passages inter- Asaid casing comprising a plurality of laterally s aced apart vertical walls defining interme iate passages, said walls being disposed so that their lower ends are in heat receiving engagement with andthe lower end'A of the passages defined thereby and closed scribe by said hot-plate, and fuel mixture intake and discharge means communicating with the upper end of said casing and so ar' or the like comprising a casing having a' uell heat transfer means at its lower end, a supporting and heat conducting means within said casing having its lower end in heat receiving contact with and closed by said heat transfer means, and fuel mixture intake and discharge means communicating with the upper end of said casing and so arranged as to pass a moving stream of fuel mixture above and across the open upper end of said fuel supporting and heat conducting means, said fuel mixture intake and discharge means being disposed in intimate parallel relation for the purposes described. 4. AL vaporizer as characterized in claim l in which the ducts of said fuel mixture and discharge means are disposed in intimate parallel relation for the purposes de- 2 in which the ducts of said fuel mixture and discharge means are disposed in intimate arallel relation for the purposes describe ln testimony that l claim the invention set forth above I have hereunto set my hand4 this 14th day of February 1923.

ERNEST n. eonwann. Witnesses:

Geenen D. Biermann, Anonima Hammer. 

